锦竹 jin zhu

Culms 8–12 m, 4–6 cm in diam., basally straight, apically drooping; internodes 40–50 cm, initially thinly white powdery, glabrous; wall rather thick; nodes glabrous; branching to base. Branches 1–3 on lower nodes, nearly horizontal; branchlets on lower nodes usually specialized into weak thorns, on middle and upper nodes many, clustered. Culm sheaths deciduous, usually with 1 or 2 pale yellow-green stripes near outer margin, glabrous, apex somewhat broadly triangular or broadly arched; auricles inconspicuous, usually joined to base of blade; ligule ca. 3 mm, margin finely ciliate; blade persistent, erect, subtriangular, base nearly as wide as sheath apex, extending outward to form inconspicuous auricles, margin involute, apex sharp. Leaf blade linear, usually 9–16 × 1–1.3 cm, abaxially pilose, adaxially glabrous. Inflorescence unknown.

* Hills, around villages. Guangdong (cultivated), Sichuan.

Bambusa subaequalis differs from B. indigena by its more slender culms with longer internodes, glabrous nodes, inconspicuous culm sheath auricles, and narrower leaf blades.